Battle of Myths! The Dragon and Brawler's Duel
It was the third day of this years Grand Magic Games, the atmosphere was electric this morning as the, the sun was rising on a brand new day, and a whole new set of players were ready to take the stage, but out of them all, this was his time to shine. Rushing out of the stands, the young man kicks-off from that floor and lands on the arena floor, it was none other than Koma Inu's self proclaimed "super rookie" leaping from his guild's side of the arena and taking a stand front and center. Running his fingers through his hair, slicking it back, he walks up to take his position for today's challenge - wearing nothing but a red tank top and his everyday clothes, he holds his trade-mark jacket over his shoulder, casually putting it on while making his way to meet his opponent. He takes a moment to marvel at the grandeur of this moment, surrounded by the cheering of hundreds if not thousands of fans, being given the chance to represent his guild in a competition against some of Earth Lands strongest competitors, he runs his fingers along his necklace, feeling ecstatic at this opportunity to prove his metal. However, before he could manage a smile, a cold realization played out in front of him as he looked to the opposite end of the arena, taking the time to examine what king of adversary he would be facing, and to his surprise: his opponent was female. Vanidas broke out in cold sweat at the implications of the match being a close-range fight, and his opponent being a woman at that, You gotta be kidding, if I fight her, people'll think I'm some kind of thug, and if I don't, I'll lose, there's no way I can win without looking like the bad guy, he thought to himself. It was a moral dilemma, but something he would have to overcome in order to win. Walking put towards the middle of the arena Nobya waved to the crowd, feeling as proud as ever to be able to be one of the mages to represent her guild Galdrabók for the third day of the tournament, wanting to match the kind of ability that she watched her guildmates on the second day display. With a cheery face on, Nobya looked over to see her opponent Vanidas on the other end, the represent of Koma Inu and quite the handsome man. "This should be fun." Nobya thought to herself as a friendly cheeky smile was formed by her lips, continuing her way towards the Koma Inu representative as she continued to look to the applauding crowds, who both cheered equally to support both guilds in the upcoming match. Flicking her hair back, Nobya's eyes glimmered as she would secretly study any physical features of her opponent so she could be prepared, though besides the good looks and the intimidating vibe that she received from Vanidas she wasn't able to catch a lot of what he could be able to do. Pulling up her sleeves to show her soft light skin, Nobya was ready to show what she was made out of, though didn't feel too confident about her capabilities as a Dragon Slayer due to not being having been able to catch as much training before the games as she would have wanted, but still was enough to be qualified as 'prepared'. "Let's just see if those many hours of training were worth it in the end..." Nobya worried to herself before holding both hands in front of her with the fingers intertwined with each other, looking down as she made her way to Vanidas. There was this feeling that this wouldn't be the only time that she would fight Vanidas, and so planned to make this fight a study of what Koma Inu mages can do and how well many of their mages could live up to the reputation. Not entirely sure as to what to expect from his opponent in terms of fighting ability or magic, Vanidas does the only logical thing in order to test her abilities; he begins to dig through his jacket and pant pockets, grabbing all the change he had in his possession and immediately throws a hand-full of it at her, amounting to exactly 122 in the form of a random assortment of various coins. In terms of force, the throw was nothing special and had no magic charge whatsoever, let alone the sufficient force to bruise, much less hurt her. The various spectators were scratching their heads as to Vanidas's reasoning for why or what the intention was for such a bizarre act in the middle of battle. Although the action in on itself was meaningless or downright idiotic depending on someone's point of view, Vanidas himself was using this opportunity to gauge her abilities in his own unique, albeit cryptic way. Upon doing so, he backs away immediately, separating himself exactly 5 meters close to her in order to prep himself for the next course of actions, doing so before the stack of change lands on her, for depending on what was going to happen next, it would inevitably decide his next course of action. Taking on his offensive stance, he puts his guard up, waiting patiently on what was going to happen next. Confused to what Vanidas was doing, Nobya's train of thought was immediaetly interrupted by the incoming currency the hit her, as she tried to block the coins and what not from hitting her face as she blocked their way with her palm facing outwards, closing her eyes to prevent the currency from hitting them as well. As the change fell to the ground after hitting her hand, Nobya was very confused to why Vanidas would so such a thing. "Um, ok?" Nobya thought out loud, looking to the ground before kneeling down and picking the change back up from the floor, picking every bit of currency that she could find around her as quickly as to not delay their fight any longer. Picking herself back up, Nobya held out her palm with the currency out in display with a smile, "I think you dropped this." she said with a cheerful smirk as she tried to encourage Vanidas to take it back. "What was he trying to do? Was he taunting me or something? Were those coins supposed to explode? If it is should I even give the coins back? I'm confused." Nobya thought to herself as she stood there with her arm out wide with the money in her palm for Vanidas to take back before their fight was to begin. "I honestly don't know what you were trying to do there, no offence if that was an actual attack though!" Nobya said before realising that she may have insulted Vanidas halfway through her sentence which could be told by the surprised and apologetic look that she gave off as her tone changed as well. Nobya obviously wasn't feeling it today so maybe this fight might get her back into the system and remind her that this is a competition to become the strongest guild in the whole country, and not some spar tournament that she would have casually asked another mage to go against with. But through the whole stress of representing her team, Nobya nonetheless retained a fun loving smile that she was probably well known for. "Right sorry about that," Vanidas said with an embarrassed look on his face, taking back his coins, as he walks back, with his tactic having served it's purpose. From what he could deduce form her actions, Nobya demonstrated the signs of a technical fighter when blocking the currency with her palm, while most people would either dodge or outright attack head on, she blocked while instinctively covering her most exposed areas, which demonstrated that she knew how to defend herself, thus allowing him to get a feel of the way she handles herself in conflict, and in turn how she would use her magic. "Again, really sorry, it was my way of sizing you up, the real fight starts now," he takes several of the coins he threw erlier, only this time actually doing something with them. Imbuing several of them with his magic energy, he lunges them forward, with an overhand throw, escaping from his hand's grasps at top velocity, akin to flying bullets fired by a gun, with a total of 5 coins rushing at her. Keeping the energy low so as not to completely pierce their way through her body, Vanidas races shortly behind them, matching them in terms of speed in order to deliver his own attack should they fail to miss or counter any incoming attacks ahead of time that would be directed to him. In order to keep himself mobile rather than a standing target, Vanidas begins to side-step partway to Nobya's direction, striding his way to her as he alternates between left and right in rapid succession in order to make it much more difficult to read his two-pronged attack. Nobya smiled as Vanidas finally started the fight by throwing his coins right back at Nobya at an alarming speed as he too kept up with them, but with little time to spare Nobya immediately closed her eyes and tensed her body as just a medium forced Dragon Pulse was exerted from her body and sent a shockwave around Nobya, with the coins hitting the shock and slowing down in velocity due to the strong forces of the colliding products evening and balancing each other out, with the coins becoming nothing more than just coins. With Vanidas left to handle and all ready having spent magic power as if they were in the middle of a fight, the female mage with her aim right on Vanidas let out a Darkness Dragon Roar still keeping that five meter distance between the fighters like a point blank Dragon Roar with a black seal appearing before her mouth, blowing into the seal to send a large black beam heading straight for Vanidas with the audience feeling the intense strength of the beam from even behind the barriers, as the beam looked that strong to give off such a bold impression. With the incoming beam giving no time to spare for Vanidas, Nobya was only attacking from off the top of her head as she had not planned anything at all to deal with this situation, hoping to devise on as the battle continued. "Don't worry Galdrabók, I'll try my best to make sure Koma doesn't get this point!" Nobya thought with pride as studied Vanidas' attacks and spells to see if there was a pattern to the Koma Inu mage. Mid-way on his side-step, Vanidas leans on his right foot, pushing his body weight on top of it in order to propel himself to the far left in order to dodge the incoming roar, knowing full well that this was the next course of action in response to his attack. Upon closer inspection, the beam was black, with the seal being the same exact color and hovering near her mouth; what was that roar? Slayer Magic? Dragon maybe, ''he pondered on this, no doubt that she was using some form of Dragon Slayer Magic based on how she fired her spell through her mouth and the "roaring" sound he heard echo throughout the arena, the only question in head was ''what element is it?. If that were the case, Vanidas would have to be much more attentive to her and the kind of elements she would be using. Taking advantage of her roar's casting speed and preparation, he sprints his way to tackle her head-on without giving her an inch to switch out of spells, he gives her smile, now preparing to counter her attack with one of his own move. His movements began to take a much stranger pace in comparison to earlier, where he was side-stepping, Vanidas was now weaving his body left and right, all the while performing a series of dodging and ducking motions, with his head moving in a near figure-eight pattern. He brings his hands to his chest and elevates them to eye level, increasing his speed even further as he begins to approach Nobya. He pushes with his legs and utilizes the momentum created by the rolling motion to prepare his next attack—while still moving back and forth in the figure-eight to keep up the momentum and avoid any incoming attacks from her. With his constant change in positions, it rendered him a difficult target to hit, let alone to track, using his natural speed to move at such monumental speeds, he begins to generate multiple afterimages in place, each moving in a different direction. It was uncanny, his stance, the way that he moved, although difficult to grasp, Vanidas was boxing, and the move he was setting up was undoubtedly the classic Dempsey Roll, with his own flare added to it. Running up close, he quickly ran in order to close the distance between himself and Nobya, using the accumulated momentum from his weaves to strengthen his punches, transforming them into speeding bullets that were rushing to meet her head-on. Trying to keep her eyes on Vanidas, the opponent was too fast for her to study at this speed, irritating Nobya that she couldn't be able to read her opponent except for the fact that he can fight for a boxer, and has a thing for speed causing damage, "Uh please keep still so I can hit you!" Nobya thought frustratedly. But as soon as Vanidas finally closed the distance between him and Nobya, it was clear that he was attempting to strike Nobya with a fast punch, and with the speed of the fist that his strike was going at it was near impossible for Nobya to try and counter the attack, only to allow her to take the hit for now. Using both her arms to shield her face, Nobya relied on her immense durability in order to soak in the damage as the fist colliding with her shield arms threw Nobya quite back abit, putting some distance between the mages as Nobya felt the force through her arms. Letting out a grunt of discomfort Nobya landed back on her feat after the punch, releasing the shield as she shaked her hands up and down and a smile having formed on her face, "Go easy on me, the fight has only started." She said jokingly before running up to Vanidas using her Reduced Earth to quickly speed up to and behind Vanidas and positioning behind the Koma Inu mage. Opening her palm, Nobya drew back her arm with the palm open before shooting it straight into the middle of Vanidas' spine, executing a Dān Pī Zhǎng with a smile on her face, "If it's physical fighting you want than it's physical fighting you shall get!" she thought as her palm strike was only centimetres from Vanidas' back.